#GoodreadsGiveaway for Eating Bull, a Thriller that Explores #Bodyshaming, #FoodAddiction, and #Obesity–Oh, and Is There Some Mischief Afoot?

If you’re in the U.S. and would like a chance to win one of two paperback copies of Eating Bull, click here or on the image below to enter the Goodreads giveaway. Ends January 23rd.

Good luck!

Click image to enter Goodreads giveaway.

That Time I Made the Book Out to Bob

Many people are familiar with Goodreads. It’s a great place for readers to keep track of their books. A giant virtual bookshelf, so to speak. In addition, there are always hundreds of giveaways going on.

The hope is the winner of a book will eventually review and/or rate it. In my experience, that happens about 30% of the time. Most winners probably never get around to reading the book, or maybe they do and just don’t like it enough to give it another thought. But I sometimes wonder if there’s mischief afoot as well—people who enter numerous giveaways in order to amass books and sell them on Amazon.

Why do I say that?

Funny story, if you’ve got a sec.

After one of my giveaways, I perused the list of winners and collected copies of Eating Bull, my pen at the ready. The first lucky winner was Bob.*

I opened a book, careful not to crease the fresh pages, and with the most elegant of strokes (or not), I wrote: “To Bob, Congratulations and Happy Reading!” Or some such nonsense. Then I lovingly slipped the novel into a bubble mailer, skipped to the post office, and imagined Bob’s exuberance over receiving his package. Would he like the book? Would he ponder its message? Would he scramble to his keyboard to leave a review?

No.

He would sell it on Amazon.

Within the week.

How do I know?

About eight days later, a colleague of my husband’s mentioned he bought a used copy of Eating Bull on Amazon. “It was like new!” the coworker cried, happy tears in his eyes. “And it was signed!” But then he scratched his chin and sniffed, his face falling like a soufflé. “To a guy named Bob.”

Hey, at least someone made money off my book. You’re welcome, Bob.

Lesson to myself? Don’t sign anything more than my own name. You never know where it’ll end up.

*Name changed to protect the guy who sold my book faster than I could.

Oh my goodness. I hope you have better luck with this giveaway! Of all the people who received a copy of my book, about 75% reviewed… which I think is very good. Of course, then I found someone had put up a copy for sale on Amazon. For $43. =/

I kind of guessed you changed his name for this story, but I think I figured out that his real name is Boob! What a Boob! The worse thing is that he is sullying the Boob name. Glad you can laugh about it and continue with another give away. A belated Happy New Year, too!

Same here. And judging by how new the book was based on what my husband’s colleague told him, I don’t think ‘Bob’ read it first. 🙂 And he certainly didn’t leave a review or rating on Goodreads. In fact, he has very few ratings on Goodreads and yet he keeps entering giveaways. Hmm…

What a great story! I just told my husband and he laughed out loud, too. One day, hopefully, I’ll have a similar story to tell, lol. I loved Eating Bull, as you know, and can’t believe that I’ve just started using Goodreads.

Yes, we had a good laugh over the whole thing. What a small world. And thank you. I love Goodreads too. Have we connected there? I can’t remember. I’ll seek you out with my regular account if we haven’t. I have an author page too, but I don’t really use that for my books and reviews. It’s more for my author stuff.

I have connected with zero people. I’ve only had the account for a few days. Just since I looked for those titles on January 13 or 14 which prompted me to write the post An Embarrassing Personal Admission. So I haven’t explored Goodreads yet. The last person in America to do so 🙂

That is awful – but a little bit hilarious too! I have a book – I knew I was buying a second hand copy, and am fairly confident the original was bought too – with a really mystifying dedication. It’s intrigued me for years… might be a story idea one of these days!

How uncanny that you knew the person who bought it from Bob so that you may find out about such shannanigins! It’a a a small world after all…you should write a random thought that doesn’t necessarily make sense you know like a Trump blurb for the next giveaway and see if you get a response. Happy New Year to you!

Reblogged this on Cinthia Ritchie and commented:
Good news! You could win a copy of Carrie Rubin’s young adult novel “Eating Bull” in a Goodreads giveaway. I read this book last year and loved it. I laughed and cried and basically stayed up the whole night reading. It was good company, which is one of the highest esteems I can give a book. So, enter away. And good luck.

I haven’t done a giveaway for a while, so I thought it was time. Not sure how much they pay off, but I’ve gotten a few new readers that way. I often include other countries in it, but the shipping costs add up so this time I stuck to the U.S. I always feel kind of icky when I do that though.

Reblogged this on 1WriteWay and commented:
Here’s a giveaway for those of you who enjoy novels of action, suspense, and public health importance! I’ve read and reviewed Carrie Rubin’s Eating Bull and loved it! Click on her post for details on the giveaway (as well as her story of writers fear (almost) most: the “reader” who doesn’t read his or her free copy but just sells it. There’s a special place in h*ll for people like that 😉 ).

Wow that’s sucky. I’m a little sad that someone who may genuinely want the book will now not get a personalized signed copy all because of bob cashing in. 😦 I hope you are well and happy these days Carrie. 🙂

It’s funny, because I never thought someone would sell the book. But that’s certainly their right, and even if they pass it on to a library–which is great–it’s probably best I just sign my name from now on.